PS3 Game Downloads "Arbitrarily" Capped at 500MB

In an interview with Firing Squad, John Hight, the director of external development at Sony Computer Entertainment Santa Monica spoke about game development for downloadable PS3 content and size limits. He stated that "we've arbitrarily set a limit of 500MB to keep download times reasonable. Since we've got plenty of HD space we can accommodate even bigger games and a lot of them."

To put this in perspective, Xbox 360 downloadable games have been capped at 50MB, a tenth of the PS3 limit, due to the fact that some gamers don't have a Xbox 360 hard drive and need to store their content on memory cards (is anyone really doing this?). This means that there is a lot more room for creativity and options with PS3 downloadable games.

Hight went on to explain that the PS3 downloadable game scene had other advantages as well. He tried to encourage developers to take advantage of the PS3's unique properties. He asked them to "take advantage of the technology: (1) The SIXAXIS controller opens up a whole new dimension of interface. flOw and Blast Factor are great examples of games designed specifically for the SIXAXIS. (2) Support 1080p - it's incredible. Once you see it on a good 1080p HDTV you'll never want to go back to lower resolution."

Time will tell how popular PS3 downloadable games are, but if the action over at the Xbox Live Marketplace is any indication, this should be an amazing new option for game developers and gamers alike.

[Source: Firing Squad]